Barcelona news: Youngster awarded contract and sacked within hours in a bizarre incident

Supporting Real Madrid as a Barcelona player proved too consequential for the midfielder.

December 29, 2015 16:50 IST

In a bizzare incident, a young footballer has not only lived his dream of being a part of European heavyweights Barcelona but also saw it squashed within a span of 24 hours!

Spanish midfielder Sergi Guardiola, not related to the much-revered football manager with the same surname, signed a one-and-a-half-year deal with the B side of the Catalan giants on Monday.

Some hours later, however, a thorough search on his social media platform made him face the immediate sack and the wrath of everyone in Barca. The 24-year-old had posted some tweets that were deemed "offensive towards the club and Catalonia" by Barcelona officials.

The craziest part is the tweets were two years old!

"Hala Madrid!" said one of those tweets. The two words might not sound very offensive to a layman, but for a Barcelona player, uttering them is equiavalent to committing a crime.

Not for nothing has the El Clasico rivalry gone down in history books. The hatred between the teams both on and off the field is a testament to that. We all remember the infamous incident in 2002 when Luis Figo, a former Barca player, was thrown at the head of a pig during his return to the Nou Camp as a Real Madrid player.

Guardiola, meanwhile, had nothing much to say except that the messages were posted by one of his friends as a prank. "I know I made a mistake. I apologise to Catalonia and Barcelona. I understand the decision, I'd do the same," the midfielder told Spanish radio station Cope following his sack.

"I want to make it clear I didn't write those tweets. A friend took my phone and did it. It's a misunderstanding. The tweets are from 2013, a joke from a friend, I didn't even know the tweets existed.

"Barcelona have treated me very well. I understand their decision. Now I'm going home, we'll see what happens."